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BIG PHYSICS, BIG QUESTIONS –

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MICROSOFT cannily hides all kinds of information inside documents created in
the latest versions of Word. The hidden details include who created the files,
what type of computer they used and when they did their work. Presumably, the
intention is to help corporate users keep track of changes in the documents, as
well as to humour the sort of managers who need to feel in control of
everything. This rather upsets privacy advocates, but that doesn’t seem to
bother Microsoft.

In fact, Microsoft seems so unconcerned about that hidden information that
the company didn’t bother to remove it from the Word version of its own annual
report, posted on its website. Feedback downloaded it, and quickly uncovered
something that Bill Gates probably doesn’t want us to know. It seems that
Microsoft’s minions are all too familiar with the qualities of the company’s
flagship Windows operating system. They prepared the final version of their
corporate annual report on an Apple Macintosh.

WITH the next millennium almost upon us, alarmists are running around in
circles warning that the sky is about to fall on our heads. Feedback is cynical
enough to expect problems, but sceptical that any will be catastrophic. The
worst Y2K glitches are likely to be in the same league as the one that brought
horseless carriages back to the state of Maine.

Maine officials have spent &dollar;18 million on fixing the state’s Y2K
problems, and thought all was well. That was until year 2000 cars started to go
on sale, and owners received title certificates confirming that they now possess
a new “horseless carriage”. It seems the state’s computers had interpreted 2000
as 1900, meaning that any 00 cars had to be horseless carriages, not
automobiles. The state has now tracked down the bug and issued new titles.

READERS will be familiar with programs such as Net Nanny, which protect
children, employees and other impressionable people from websites featuring
topics deemed undesirable, such as pornography and political controversy. One
interesting problem with these programs is some of the things they choose to
censor.

ScienceWeek, a newsletter distributed by e-mail each week from
Chicago, had one of its issues returned, undelivered, by the computer company
Gateway. One of Gateway’s employees was a subscriber, but the firm had installed
a program to scan all incoming e-mail for offensive language. It found a
“profanity” in the latest issue of ScienceWeek, and blocked it.

The naughty word was “homo”, which appeared in an anthropology report on the
species Homo sapiens.

BUT EVEN Gateway’s zeal to protect the modesty and purity of its staff fails
to match that of energy company Australian Gas Light. Reader Hugh Grady tells us
that a memo sent to new members of staff warns them: “All e-mail is scanned for
inappropriate content before it exists.”

How they do this, we’re not quite sure. But it certainly sounds
intimidating.

PARENTS being driven mad by grizzling children should try to respond more
positively. According to a press release from theUniversity of Chicago Press,
the latest book by sociologist Jack Kantz, How Emotions Work, has been
hailed as “the most sophisticated social psychology of everyday life produced to
date”.

Among the book’s many insights is this: “Whining might be considered a
child’s exploration of his or her body as a musical instrument.”

Sophisticated indeed.

FOR his birthday, reader Russell Morton’s son received a Pelican Super Sabre
Lite torch, which is apparently submersible to 600 metres. The packaging carries
details of an unconditional lifetime guarantee, which concludes with this
caveat: “The above guarantee does not cover shark bite, bear attack or children
under 5.”

TIME, a recent article in New Scientist averred, does not exist(16 October, p 28).
Nevertheless, 1999 seems to be relentlessly speeding to its
conclusion, and suddenly it is time for the Feedback Christmas Competition.

As our Christmas double issue this year will also be our millennium issue,
millennia provide the theme for the competition. Imagine three time capsules,
one buried in the year 1000, one buried in 2000, and one buried in 3000. What
five objects would you expect or hope to find in each one when it is
unearthed?

You may send in your 15 suggestions by letter, fax or e-mail. Thanks to the
generosity of Jonathan Cape, 15 lucky winners will each receive a copy of
The Magic Furnace, Marcus Chown’s “extraordinary account of how scientists
unravelled the mystery of atoms and helped to explain the dawn of life”.

The winning entries will be chosen on the basis of their wit and originality.
All entries must reach us by Monday 29 November. The winners will be announced
in the 25 December/1 January issue. The Editor’s decision is final.

FINALLY, Tony Newton spotted this in the instruction manual of a pasta maker
manufactured in Japan: “Use with room temperature and humility.”